The tissue samples were teeth; each student was responsible for some of
the fifty specimens in the collection, representing various Ontario
populations, which they analyzed at University of Cape Town using stable
isotope technology. “We were examining Canadian aboriginal teeth in
order to reconstruct the population's diet as well as make predictions
about their environment,” said Magdalena Sobol of Victoria College, one of
the six students who participated.

After a week spent in Toronto learning how to measure, take moulds of and prepare the teeth for the trip, the group journeyed to South

Heather Kristjanson at Devil’s Peak overlooking Cape Town.

Africa
at the end of May. Upon arrival in Cape Town, the students took part in a
one-week course on stable isotope analysis where they learned alongside
other students from throughout Africa. They then spent June applying what they had learned to the materials brought from
Ontario archaeological sites.

“The program really emphasized to our students what an international
endeavor research is,” said Pfeiffer. “They also benefited from seeing
the challenges that some students in Africa face who don’t have as
strong an educational background, who haven’t had the same kind of
educational opportunities.”

The experiential learning process of Science Abroad, in which students
earn course credit through their work in real-world lab situations,
provided the students with a unique opportunity to apply the theory they
had learned.

For Heather Kristjanson, the hands-on training in the
preparation of samples was the highlight of the program. “If in the
future we want to do this, we will know how; that’s something that not a
lot of students will get. Although mass spectrometers are available in
Ontario, it’s expensive to run these tests, so as an undergraduate
student, you wouldn’t have this kind of access to the equipment.”

For Sobol, who has now decided to pursue a major in biological
anthropology, the location of the program added to the learning
experience. “At the University of Cape Town, I was able to work and
interact with some of the top researchers in the field. More
importantly, South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and
human fossil sites in the world, some of which I was able to visit. The
realization that I was walking on the same ground as our ancestors did
over a hundred thousand years ago was awe-inspiring.”